North Carolina historical timeline

Origins

Cherokee, Catawba and Tuscarora peoples held this land long before European arrival. The English attempted settlement at Roanoke Island in the 1580s; the colony vanished, and the Lost Colony remains unexplained.

Turning points

Permanent settlement spread from the coast inland. The colonial and antebellum economy rested on tobacco, naval stores and enslaved labour, and the state seceded in 1861 — late, and with substantial internal opposition.

Influential people

On 17 December 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first powered, controlled flights at Kill Devil Hills, having chosen the Outer Banks for their steady wind and soft sand.

Cultural evolution

Textiles, tobacco and furniture built the twentieth-century Piedmont, then largely left it. What replaced them was the Research Triangle, founded in 1959 between three universities, and a banking industry that made Charlotte a financial centre.

Present-day significance

The state now runs on research, finance, film and tourism, with agriculture still substantial in the east.